Many different methods for brewing coffee or steeping tea have emerged over time. Coffee is brewed by percolation, by infusion with water under pressure and by other methods. In one such method, coffee grounds or tea leaves, as an infusible material are brought into contact with a large body of heated water for a predetermined time to effect the brewing or steeping of a beverage. After the infusible material is removed, the beverage is ready to be poured from a pot.
Over time certain criteria have been recognized as critical to brewing hot beverages, such as coffee and tea, successfully. Some of these criteria are outside the control of the manufacturers that offer for sell a beverage brewing apparatus. For example, tea drinkers control the quality and quantity of the water and tea leaves used to brew the beverage. Consumers control limited criteria with respect to coffee in terms of a coffee brand selection, the fineness of the resulting coffee grounds and the ratio of water and coffee grounds during brewing.
Additionally, the beverage brewing apparatus may control other important criteria for successfully brewing a hot beverage. For example, the apparatus may control steeping or brewing, temperature and time. In recent years, the so-called “French Press” method of brewing coffee has become a popular standard and has also been adapted for steeping tea. An apparatus for implementing this method includes a plunger with a disk made of a perforated metal mesh that fits snugly inside a glass beaker. In use a consumer removes the plunger from the glass beaker and fills the glass beaker with hot water that was heated, typically externally in a water kettle. The consumer then adds an appropriate quantity of coffee grounds to the water and stirs the mixture to assure proper distribution of the fusible material throughout the liquid.
Next, the consumer places the plunger assembly on top. Throughout the following brewing interval (e.g., 4-7 minutes), the water temperature remains fairly constant. During this brewing interval and thereafter the glass and stainless steel of the apparatus minimize any leaching of materials into the beverage that would introduce any unwanted flavor or impurity. After the user determines that an appropriate brewing interval ends, the consumer pushes the plunger down to the bottom of the beaker. This displaces most of the grounds toward the bottom of the beaker. Then the disk on the plunger isolates the grounds from the brewed beverage to terminate any significant brewing thereafter.
Many consumers of coffee believe that the best brewed coffee is obtained by a pour-over method. There are a number of pour-over coffee drippers on the market. However, many of the available pour-over coffee or beverages drippers suffer from an number of shortcomings. For example, currently available pour-over coffee or beverages drippers tend to require large qualities coffee because the hot water that is poured over the coffee quickly passes through the filter cup and/or filter. Also, the temperature of the hot water used to steep beverages in currently available pour-over coffee or beverages drippers changes dramatically from the time that the pour-over operations begins to the time the beverage ready for consumption. Controlling steeping times and steeping temperatures are two of the most important factors for making a consistent high quality pour-over beverages.